


cosmic love

by towokuwusatsuwu



Category: HiGH&LOW: the Story of S.W.O.R.D. (TV)
Genre: Agender Character, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Established Relationship, Flashbacks, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Happy Ending, Introspection, Light Angst, Non-Linear Narrative, Other, Post-Canon, Relationship Study, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 12:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15863718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: ryu and ice were two different people in a world that wanted neither of them. together, against the odds, they created a place they could be themselves, and be with each other.





	cosmic love

_i took the stars from our eyes, and then i made a map_  
_and knew that somehow i could find my way back_  
_then i heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too_  
_so i stayed in the darkness with you_

The apartment tucked into the spare rooms of the Funk Jungle is home, a place they had carved with their bare hands and their determination as a group. While others fought for false beliefs and grand ideals, the Mighty Warriors were hellbent on creating a world where they could be accepted for who they already were, people brought together through fashion and music, people who thought they could better the world in their own way.

_“Isn’t this great?” Ice spins around in the room, arms outstretched, clearly pleased with himself. The dark red walls, the black curtains, the obnoxious gold crimson bedding, albums hung on the wall at a contrast with artwork Ryu recognizes. Their favorite prints, given a place of pride._

_“What is this?” Ryu glances around the room apprehensively. They had missed the opening of the Funk Jungle and much of the construction as well, having fled back to Kuryu to cut as much red tape for Ice as possible. Even if they had money, Ice had been born in Little Asian and lacked most of the documentation necessary to rent a building. “Is this your bedroom?”_

_Ice scoffs at them, takes them by the wrists and draws them out of the doorway and deeper into the room. “This is_ our _room, Ryu. I put it together for the two of us. Do you like it?”_

_It takes a moment for the words to settle in, and then Ryu looks at the room with new ones, so much of their personalities and tastes infused into the space. To Ryu, they had always been an eclectic match, but the room works, somehow. There’s something charming about the contrast, the obvious implication that two different people share this room, and yet it makes sense as a single space. And Ice beams at them, fingers so warm around their wrists._

_“It’s wonderful,” Ryu says, their breath catching in their throat. “Thank you, Ice.”_

_This time, Ice grins at them. “Anything for my babe.”_

Such romantic ideations were what drew Ryu Tatsuhito to Ice in the first place, a business mission in Little Asia quickly derailed when their eyes met the hard glittering gaze of a man who watched them from the shadows. The work was simple enough, the deal over and done with in a few minutes, but Ryu had never been a fool and was not expected home before the end of the night. It gave them free reign to approach the man who watched them so carefully, their interest piqued at someone who stared at them fearlessly even though his understanding gaze clearly said he knew exactly what Ryu was, dressed in one of the finest suits human hands can make.

_“You always look so put together when you come back, it’s so weird.” Ice laughs at them, fingers pulling at the tie at Ryu’s throat, loosening the knot with practiced ease. “I feel like a housewife or something taking you apart every time you come home from that place.”_

_Though Ryu would rather rip the clothing off as soon as possible and settle into something more comfortable, they allow Ice this moment, enjoying how carefully he undresses them. “I wish I didn’t have to dress like this at all, but our meetings are comprised of formal attire.”_

_“What would they do if they saw you in one of those sweaters you like so much? You always look so comfortable, man.” Ice unloops the tie from around Ryu’s throat and starts on the buttons of their vest, then on their shirt, forging ahead without hesitation._

_Ryu worries their lower lip between their teeth. “This isn’t… You’re not upset with me for leaving so soon? I know I told you that I’d be home for longer, but—”_

_“It’s your job, babe.” Ice kisses them on the mouth, a brief but sweet kiss. “You gotta do what you gotta do, and I ain’t gonna hold it against you. Not today. Not ever.”_

There was never anything false between them. Ryu found it easy to be honest with Ice, probing him with dozens of questions about the world he wanted, the endless and boundless optimism, the fight to make it to the top and the willingness to do what it took. It was only days later when Ryu left the Kuryu house for the first time to accompany Ice, the two of them fitting together even though Ryu’s sharp and cold edges hardly meshed with Ice’s warm and easy-going self. Two more different people could not have been made; Ryu found little interest in Ice’s favorite albums while Ice only shook his head the first time he glanced at the pages of Ryu’s books.

_The weight of Ice’s head in their lap has Ryu shifting their book to the side so they can look down to find Ice’s soft brown eyes staring up at them, his lips turned up in a gentle smile. Others have only ever seen Ice’s smirk quickly followed by a flash of knuckles, or seen him cold and callous all the way through. Though the two of them have known each other for years now, Ryu knows how lucky they are to have Ice in their life, to be worthy of that smile. Ice only shows it to the people he thinks deserve it, after all._

_“Read to me,” he says, thumbing the spine of Ryu’s book._

_“It’s not exactly something you’d be interested in.” Ryu marks their place and prepares to close the book, wondering if they have something Ice might be more inclined to enjoy._

_Ice shakes his head. “Nah, I know that. I just wanna hear you read it.”_

_“You… Excuse me?” Ryu looks down at him, raising an eyebrow in his direction._

_“The book doesn’t matter. I just wanna hear your voice right now, and if it’s a book you like, you’ll be more into it. That’s what I want.” Ice turns his head, presses a kiss to their stomach over the soft black wool of their sweater. “Oh, scratchy, Ryu, what the fuck?”_

_Ryu sighs. “It’s not scratchy. You want me to read to you?”_

_“Yeah. I love the sound of your voice but you don’t talk so much.” Ice makes puppy eyes up at them and Ryu would have done it without them, but now, how could they ever say no? “I’ll be quiet and won’t interrupt. I just want to hear your voice.”_

Romantic intentions were never part of Ryu’s original plans; they only wanted a place where they could be themself without all of the strict rules and expectations, the guidelines for correct and respectful behavior befitting an heir of Kuryu. It was a position they never wanted, quick to side with those who would tear Kuryu apart at the roots and scatter their forces, making null and void everything Kuryu had accomplished. To Ryu, it meant freedom. The freedom to choose the life they wanted, the freedom from the stress of failure and the surety of punishment.

_“What the fuck is this?” Ice catches them by the arm when they try to walk past him._

_Ryu’s throat clicks as they swallow, aware of exactly what Ice is referring to. The bruises across their back are impossible to miss, and though they had been intent on going to bed in as much clothing as possible to prevent Ice from seeing the truth, they had failed. The warmth had gotten to them and before they could hide beneath the covers, Ice had seen the truth of their latest failure and the punishment they earned as a result. In retrospect, there are worse things. Zenshin had been the one to deal out this punishment; others might have made them bleed._

_“I failed, recently.” Admitting it hardly matters to Ryu; their heart is not in this, and never has been, so what is one failure? “And I was punished as a result.”_

_“Those motherfuckers put their hands on you?” The edge in Ice’s voice is cold, just like his name would suggest, and Ryu shivers at the sound of it._

_“It didn’t hurt as much as it looks like it did.” It had hurt; Ryu had refused to react in front of their men, in front of Zenshin’s men, but Genji had been there for them when they broke down, had been there with ice and calm, soothing words._

_Ice shakes his head, throwing his hands up in the air. “It don’t matter if it hurts or not! I’ll fucking make them pay for every time they ever thought they could touch you like this.”_

_“You know you can’t,” Ryu reminds him, but Ice seizes their face in his hands, and with anyone else, it probably would have been sudden, would have hurt. But Ice’s hands are so gently on their face, his gaze imploring. “Ice, drawing down the wrath of Kuryu would only—”_

_“I’m going to make them pay.” Ice kisses them, swiftly and briefly. “One day, I’m gonna have all those old men at my mercy, and I’m going to fuck them up for every time they hurt you.”_

While Kuryu was cold and cruel, Ice was warm and gentle. When Ryu arrived at Ice’s place after long stressful meetings, keyed up with unbottled rage, Ice always knew how to gently take them apart and relax them. It was never supposed to be anything but a relationship built on mutual interest, both of their sights set on the same goal, but it was hard not to fall in love with Ice when he seemed intent on peeling back each of Ryu’s layers, able to scale the stone walls Ryu built around themself to keep all others at a sharp distance.

_“You didn’t talk too much at dinner tonight.” Ice drops down next to them on Lee’s rooftop, resting a hand on their knee, knowing full well he can get away with it. “Something up?”_

_Ryu sighs and shakes their head, combing their fingers through their hair. “I worry, sometimes, is all. That as hard we we try, we aren’t… We aren’t going to make it. Or you’ll make it, but I won’t be able to come with you because I’m duty bound to remain with Kuryu.”_

_“Fuck that shit.” Ice stretches out his legs, leans back, his hands braced behind him, head tipped back to look up at the sky. “I wouldn’t want a world that I couldn’t have you in. If we get our shit together and figure this out for real, and you ain’t there, what’s the point?”_

_The words are sweet, but Ryu sighs just the same, draws a knee up to their chest, loops their arms around it. “I don’t know. If the chance is there and the only thing holding you back is me, I won’t forgive you for not taking it. You deserve that, and so much more, and I won’t be what drags you down. Cut me loose so you don’t drown, Ice. Promise me that.”_

_“I ain’t gonna fucking promise some stupid bullshit like that, Ryu. You really think I could do that to you?_ You, _of all people?” Ice throws back his head and laughs, and Ryu looks at him from beneath their hair, measuring his expression carefully. “I’d rather die. This isn’t just for me or for them, it’s for you, too. A world where you can be who you are without all the stress and pressure, that’s what I want. A world where all you gotta do is smile for me.”_

_“You’re a romantic, Ice.” Ryu smiles despite their best efforts, cheek resting on their knee._

_Ice turns his head to look at them, his gaze soft and considering. “You got starlight in your eyes.”_

Such things never kept Ice far from them, though. Even in their worst moods, Ryu could never take their anger out on Ice, and Ice never poked and prodded them to force them into it. Instead, he offered a shoulder for their complaints, ran his fingers through their hair and promised them everything would be okay in the end. Though Ryu had no reason to believe such things at the time, they wanted to. They clung to everything Ice offered them, and eventually it meant clinging to Ice himself, the warm sunshine of his smile and the music of his voice.

_“It’s okay.” Ice’s hands are on their shoulders the moment Ryu jerks away from him, their breath coming sharp and sudden, already mentally beating themself up for crossing another line. “Ryu, you don’t gotta keep putting distance between us like this.”_

_Ryu shakes their head. “It’s not right of me, I apologize. I’m making you uncomfortable, I can tell. I don’t mean to keep invading your personal space. It isn’t who I am.”_

_Ice smiles softly and sadly at them. “You think I’m uncomfortable ‘cause you wanna cuddle up to me? Nah, not ever. The only thing got me worried is that I don’t… I don’t know what you want. You want a close friend, well, you got me. You want a partner, you know I’m here. But if you want more than that… You gotta say it out loud, baby. I can’t read your mind.”_

_“More than that,” Ryu echoes. The prospect is so sweet, so beautiful, so perfect, and so far out of their reach. It would be like stretching out a hand to touch the stars only to have their fingers badly burned by the reality. “I could never. We could never. We’re too different, such a thing would never work out in the long-run. You and I both know that.”_

_“Do I know that?” Ice asks, cocking his head at them, an incorrigible grin on his face._

_Ryu’s lips twist together, their stomach tight with knots. “You should. I do. I’d… You’re a wonderful man, and you’ll make someone very happy one day, but I’m not good for you. I can’t be here all the time. I can’t promise you a future. You know that.”_

_“I knew all that the first time we talked.” Ice’s hands slide down their shoulders to their arms, fingers tracing the bends of their elbows, sliding smooth down their forearms before tightly gripping their hands, Ice lacing their fingers together. “I know that now. I know reality, Ryu, I get it. I know how hard it’s gonna be for us to make this work.”_

_“Then why? Why even try, if it’s going to be so difficult?” Ryu demands, their voice breaking._

_Ice pulls them closer, into the warmth of his aura, the radiance of his personal space where Ryu feels like they must be basking in sunlight even though the time is well past three in the morning. Standing this close to him is intoxicating in more ways than one, and Ryu would stay right here forever if they could._

_“Because I’m in love with you,” Ice says, and Ryu thinks their heart stops beating at this confession. “Because I’ve been in love with you for months. I’m so tired of falling asleep alone in my bed knowing you’re just a few feet away. I’m tired of pretending I don’t look at you and see the fucking stars in human form. You’re the world to me, Ryu, the world and the entire sky and I just want a chance to prove to you how much I love you. Every single day.”_

_Ryu squeezes their eyes shut, overwhelmed. “I love you, too. For changing my life. For giving me hope. For opening my eyes when I thought everything was dark.”_

_“I’ll keep ‘em open,” Ice murmurs. “Just be mine. Forever.”_

Ryu would never believe in fairy tales or soulmates, such idiotic fantasies beyond the realm they found themself sequestered in despite their fruitless desire to escape. A yakuza heir could never truly fall in love because such a thing would put their partner in danger, and yet Ryu found themself falling in love with Ice just the same. When he smiled, when he sat Ryu down to run through a rap he’d written, when his eyes crinkled at every cryptic statement Ryu made, Ryu found themself wrapped up in him in more ways than one. Such a thing was never meant to happen, because Ryu was not someone such things could happen to.

_“You have no idea how much you deserve to be loved,” Ice tells them when they curl into the far end of the couch, flushed and overwhelmed and a bit upset over the rap Ice has just read them. The private one, meant only for their ears. “You keep acting like you don’t know how to react, but it’s what you deserve. You’ve always deserved it.”_

_Ryu shakes their head, fingers combing through their hair, and they are so tempted to pull their bangs over their eyes and hide. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, Ice.”_

_Ice throws the notebook on the coffee table and his hands are suddenly on Ryu’s thighs, sliding into the bends of their knees, pulling them sideways and up onto the couch. The position leaves them vulnerable on their back but Ice is there a moment later, hands propped on their side of Ryu’s head, stretched out atop them, all gleaming brown skin and shining eyes. The way he looks at them makes their world tilt on its axis, always threatening to spin off into space._

_“I do know.” Ice kisses the tip of their nose. “You don’t think you deserve it, but you do. You deserve it more than anyone I’ve ever met in my entire life.”_

_That has Ryu raising their eyebrows. “More than you? I can hardly believe such a thing.”_

_“You don’t always gotta win, baby. I’m just telling you the truth. Growing up in that big cold house, not getting a proper childhood, all the shit you deal with.” Ice pauses, his expression grave, and Ryu wonders how many times he’s thought about it when Ryu has paid less attention than they should. “But you’re still here with us, still got that spark in your heart. You can still smile and joke with us. You’re so fucking beautiful when you smile, Ryu.”_

_Though the words should_ not _elicit such a response, Ryu smiles, then tries to hide their lips behind their fingers. “Stop trying to embarrass me,” they demand, muffled against their hand._

_“No.” Ice kisses their hand, lashes feathered so softly over his eyes. “I’m gonna spend the rest of my life loving you, so just get used to the sappy lyrics. They aren’t gonna end.”_

As Ryu steps out of the Kuryu car for the final time, though, the heavy weight on their shoulders has been lifted. Years of self-doubt and uncertainty have been laid to rest; Kuryu’s destruction at the hands of S.W.O.R.D. had left Ryu unscathed, their hands relatively clean from most of the schemes the old men had gotten up to together. Precious few managed to escape any punishment but Ryu is lucky in that respect; they had scrubbed their presence from so much and are relieved no one noticed before it was too late.

“This is the last time.” Genji steps out of the car and clasps Ryu’s shoulder; Ryu does the same, the two of them staring each other down. “Take care of yourself.”

Ryu nods once, the corner of their lips twitching faintly. “I will. You do the same.”

They have only the one bag to collect from the car before it drives away, their past fading into the distance with the headlights. Ryu watches the car disappear and exhales slowly, their eyes fluttering shut as they say goodbye to the past they have been desperate to escape since the moment they were old enough to understand the spider’s web they were born in. Every year spent under Kuryu only wound the strands tight and sticky around their limbs, threatening to suffocate them, refusing to let them escape their fate.

Ice was there with shears every time, cutting away the silk until Ryu was free to breathe if only for a few days or a week at a time, rarely more than two. Now, Ryu can walk freely.

The Funk Jungle pulses with manic energy when Ryu steps through the doorway, unsurprising considering the club has only grown in popularity. Their ears pick up the familiar rhythm of Pearl’s rapping and they glance toward the stage in interest, pausing to watch him perform, trading lines with 9 while Bernie stays behind the mix table, head bobbing to what he spins for them. Ice is there, too, radiant as always, able to out-sing and out-rap anyone. He lives for this, the music and the splendor and the crowd, and Ryu is lucky to have him.

Slowly, they wind their way through the crowd closer to the stage, but they only reach the halfway point before Ice sees them from the stage. His eyes widen, his lips falling open, the microphone slipping from his hand and thudding to the stage, the sound making most of the club goers wince, hands flying up to cover their ears. The music grinds to a halt and Ryu thinks, distantly, that they should have come home once the club was closed.

“Ryu!” Ice’s voice rises above the confused murmur of the crowd and Ryu’s heart beats staccato against their ribs, their breath caught in their throat. “Ryu! You’re really fucking here! _Ryu!_ ”

Ice bounds off of the stage and the crowd parts for him, but hardly fast enough; there are still people backing away rapidly when Ice reaches Ryu, his face shining, hand scrabbling over his face to rip the sunglasses away. He’s every bit as handsome as Ryu left him, the short-cropped hair suiting him, though he suits every hairstyle he tries. Ryu wonders what Ice thinks of them now, hair longer and darker, a little paler, a little aged from the stress of Kuryu.

If his gaze is anything to go by, though, Ice hardly cares. His eyes are wet when he takes Ryu’s hands in his own, squeezing Ryu’s fingers so hard it almost hurts. But not enough for Ryu to care. “It’s really you,” he says, voice soft with wonder like he can’t quite believe it. “You’re here. You’re really here right in front of me right now.”

Ryu’s face burns at the words but they nod quickly. “I am. I’m… I’ve come home for good.”

Such a thing should be natural conclusion to reach with the dissolve of Kuryu but Ice’s eyes widen in wonder, his mouth agape once more before he laughs and pulls Ryu into his arms, his embrace almost tight enough to crush Ryu’s slender frame. But Ryu drops their bag to hug him back, arms wrapped tight around his strong shoulders, face pressed against the side of his head. _Ice. Home._ That’s all that matters to them. It’s all that’s ever mattered to them.

When they lean back, Ice leans in, bringing their lips together with the same warmth and tenderness Ryu has always known from him. The crowd erupts into cheers around them but it’s a distant noise to Ryu, too wrapped up in Ice’s kiss, Ice’s arms, _Ice._ Living without him was mere survival and Ryu is hardly able to understand how they could have made it without him.

Ice, the other half of their heart, the other half of their soul.

It feels like eternity that they stand there kissing, not that Ryu would mind. When Ice looks at them, the lights of the club flash in his eyes and he smiles, and he _laughs_ and the sound reverberates through Ryu’s rib cage, wrapping around his heart tight and secure. And for the first time in _months,_ Ryu finds themself laughing along before they wrap themself back around Ice, needing him close, needing Ice in their arms.

Ice doesn’t let them go for the rest of the night. Ryu finally feels like they’re home.


End file.
